The State Building Commission on Friday approved a new proposal to use unspent funds for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other projects in the university system.
It comes after Republicans on the commission blocked a similar proposal last month.
The original plan would have moved $70 million in unspent funds from a science building project at UW-Eau Claire to a series of system projects, including the engineering building in Madison.
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The new proposal broke the $70 million into two chunks, requiring two votes.
The first, approved unanimously, split $45 million in unspent funds from the Eau Claire project between the engineering building and projects at UW-Stout and UW-Whitewater.
The second, approved on a 5-3 vote, shifted $25 million in unspent funds from the Eau Claire project to a small project fund.
Like the proposal rejected last month, the one approved Friday reallocates $29 million in unspent funds to the engineering building, and brings the project’s total cost to $419.8 million.
Bids for the UW-Eau Claire project came in under budget, after its initial budget was approved based on “unprecedented inflationary trends” and uncertainty in the supply chain and labor market, according to the meeting packet.
In a statement after the meeting, Gov. Tony Evers said it was unfortunate the funding reallocations were “unnecessarily delayed.”
“I’m glad they were finally approved today to ensure these critical projects can move forward,” Evers stated. “Our UW System is a central part of Wisconsin’s ability to compete in recruiting, training, and retaining a talented workforce, and it is absolutely essential that we support the UW’s important work.”
After the meeting, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said on social media he appreciates the support the engineering building has received from the governor, lawmakers and the state business community.
“The new facility will serve as a critical asset to move Wisconsin’s economy forward,” he wrote. “We are thankful for the final vote that approved our request to fund small projects like upgrading elevators, replacing roofs, fixing fire alarms & insulating pipes.”
The university system has said the engineering building project would replace an aging building with a larger facility that would allow the UW-Madison to enroll roughly 1,000 more engineering students.
State Sen. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, who voted against the engineering building funds last month, voted in favor of them Friday. Jacque said he appreciated that the UW system was able to address outstanding questions he had about the projects prior to the meeting.
Jacque also asked that the Universities of Wisconsin or UW-Madison track what percentage of engineering graduates stay in Wisconsin after graduation, given roughly half of Madison’s student body is coming from out of state.
“We would have a baseline for that now and potentially be able to see what the impact would be, from a policy standpoint, (of) making that investment going forward after the building is constructed,” Jacque said.
While Jacque voted in favor of the $45 million that that included the engineering building funds, he voted against the other $25 million reallocation.
Beyond the engineering building, the commission’s vote reallocated $10.5 million to renovation projects at UW-Whitewater’s education buildings and $5.4 million to a renovation project at UW-Stout.
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